SALT LAKE CITY — While President Biden's ban of oil imports from Russia will impact prices, it won't be a supply issue for the U.S. and Utah.
Canada and Mexico are the two biggest sources of imported crude oil to the United States, while Russia accounts for about 8 percent of imported petroleum products to the country, though Russian crude oil is not a significant part of crude oil imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. produces more crude oil than it consumes, and crude is often imported for refineries to process and then export.
The U.S. is the world's biggest oil producer, and in 2020, Utah was eleventh in the country when production in the Gulf of Mexico is included. Utah facilities produce 87,000 barrels per day.
The top five states and the Gulf of Mexico produce about as much crude oil as all of Russia.
The orange line in the chart below shows weekly average gas prices in Rocky Mountain states for the last five years. The week ending March 7 saw prices jump nearly half a dollar, the biggest one week jump in that entire time span.
Oil prices hit $130 per barrel on March 8, which led to an all-time high national average price per gallon of gas, reported at $4.15 by the American Automobile Association. Two Utah counties will benefit from the surge in prices: Duchesne and Uintah, which have about 500 oil and gas jobs between them, and an average monthly wage of $7,500 dollars.
